Linda Fiorentino is the ultimate in cold-hearted,
erotic, brainy, dangerous, femme fatales. It's a
modern film noir reworked from the classic 1940s
versions. This one has a hard-assed edge and a tough
moral ending to swallow. It is witty, provocative and
entertaining...an extremely funny and unsentimental
movie. The plot keeps you guessing as the twists keep
coming, as it is tautly directed by John Dahl ("Red
Rock West"). The film made its debut on cable and
therefore wasn't eligible for Oscar considerations,
otherwise it might very well have received some
nominations--almost certainly one for Fiorentino's
super performance.

What gives this film its unrelenting chills and
thrills is that the amoral Fiorentino was so
mean-spirited and crass, showing off her big city New
York attitude and her willingness to 'talk the talk'
and f*ck the pants off her boyfriend while maniacally
outwitting her husband.

Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) talks her
weak-minded NYC doctor-husband Clay (Bill Pullman)
into pulling off a risky $700,000 drug deal--of him
switching pharmaceutical medicine cut into cocaine for
the cash, which he needs in order for him to pay off
his debts to the loan sharks. But Clay slaps her when
he returns from the nerve-wracking drug deal after she
calls him stupid for walking through the streets with
the wads of money tucked under his shirt, and when he
is in the shower she impulsively sneaks out with the
money and leaves by car for Chicago. She ends up
stopping off in a small hick town outside of Buffalo.

In the small-town of Beston she goes into Ray's bar
and attracts the local yokel Mike Swale (Peter Berg),
who just returned from living in Buffalo after being
mysteriously married there. He hates this town but
doesn't have the nerve to leave it again after his bad
experience in the big city. She wastes no time in
having a sex-only-relationship with him and keeps him
distanced from her by referring to him as a rube and a
sex-object. He cries out for a real relationship where
they can also be friends and share things, and seems
to go along with her dominating him only because he
doesn't know any better. She contacts her NYC lawyer
(J.T. Walsh) for advice, worried that Clay will come
after her and that she can't spend the dough freely
without him claiming half if she's still married. The
lawyer tells her it will take about two years to get a
divorce and that she should stop running and find a
small-town to hideout in until the divorce comes
through.

Remaining in town she gets an insurance management
position and tells her new boss that she has to use
the name Wendy Kroy, because she has a restraining
order of protection from her abusive husband. She is
surprised to find that Mike works at the same place as
a claims adjuster, but slyly keeps him away from her
saying his sexual advances are not good for her
corporate image. After she rents a house and doesn't
tell Mike where it is, she soon lures him to her house
after she comes up with an outlandish scheme to get
Mike to help her keep the money. She tricks him into
killing her husband (Mike is not aware that it is her
husband).

Mike is not the killer type, so she had to work hard
to find something on Mike that could get him to even
consider her scheme. When she finds out his nasty
secret she easily manipulates the hapless sucker by
playing with his head and giving him the best sex he
ever had, and playing further mind games by sometimes
allowing him a quick peak into her private space.

Warning: spoilers to follow in
the next paragraph.

Clay's private detective friend (Nunn) traces her
call. He goes to Beston because he is promised a
certain percentage of the money he recovers. Clay by
not paying off the Mafia debts, now has a broken thumb
and he is reduced to doing illegal drug prescriptions
for junkies to keep himself alive. He is desperate to
get his hands on her and the cash. When the enforcer
manages to catch up with Fiorentino and forces his way
into her car, she ingeniously rubs him out in a car
crash when he gets caught with his pants down, just
before he was going to put the squeeze on her and get
the drug cash.

The film builds to its dark climax ingeniously, with
Fiorentino delivering a virtuoso performance. She goes
from sexually appealing to dangerous. Fiorentino
seems to have drawn the same personality type of man
to her in husband and boyfriend, both with insecurity
problems. They are unable to resist the insane
attraction they have for her. Pullman and Berg are
splendid as supporting characters, making her
relationship with them to be outlandish but plausible.
It's an unpretentious film that delivers a bad
attitude.